Each year, a volunteer team of Moore Foundation administrative staff work together to select an annual theme for making contributions through the foundation’s Community Fund. The Community Fund, which is separate from the foundation’s typical programmatic funding, allocates $500,000 annually to providing local support to public charities in Santa Clara and San Mateo county. Early this year, the Community Fund team, made up of nine women who collaborated from departments across the foundation,decided to focus on homelessness and affordable housing as a critical area of support for 2020. With the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, the team expanded the theme to include COVID-19 relief support with an emphasis on local community-based organizations responding to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, including assisting the homeless community, supporting affordable housing, and provide clinical care needs.
The new framing resulted in a more targeted focus on the original theme – the challenges of not having housing are amplified while sheltering in place – and opened opportunities to support organizations that provide much-needed clinical care support in the community. The homelessness crisis in the Silicon Valley is among the worst in the United States. It was estimated that San Mateo County had 1,512 homeless people, with Santa Clara county having the most homeless people in the Bay Area with an estimated 9,706 people without a residence.
Through contributions to 15 organizations, the Community Fund hopes to help advance the important and critical work of the selected organizations in our community. We are grateful for the work of our 2020 Community Fund recipients, and to all who are providing support for our most vulnerable neighbors year after year, especially during this pandemic.
2020 Community Fund recipients
THE MOORE FOUNDATION’S COMMUNITY FUND PROVIDES SUPPORT TO LOCAL NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN SANTA CLARA AND SAN MATEO COUNTIES THAT WOULD NOT TYPICALLY BE CONSIDERED FOR FUNDING UNDER THE MOORE FOUNDATION’S FOUR MAIN PROGRAM AREAS.
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